


Exsanguination

by Pseudonaut



Category: Borderlands (Video Games), Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: Blood and Violence, Denial, F/M, Hurt No Comfort, Loss, Not Canon Compliant, One-Sided Attraction, Short One Shot, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-25 12:38:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10764441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pseudonaut/pseuds/Pseudonaut
Summary: Her exsanguination covered his already filthy, stain hands. So close to the truth, yet all it took was one drop of blood to extinguish the candle lighting their way there. Now she was finally in his arms -- the first time about to be the last with life in her full emerald eyes, somehow still brimming with life when there's simply non left in what once was Fiona.





	Exsanguination

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: This is probably some of the darkest stuff I've written, don't read this if you're easily scared or squeamish.  
> But enjoy if you do, of course.
> 
> -
> 
> Tumblr: http://ao3-pseudonaut.tumblr.com/

 

  

 

* * *

  

 

 

 

A knife looks sharper when it's being used to threaten. Maliciously toyed with as it glistened against the desert twilight in less of a display of menace, but fully a showing of the moustached man's impatience. He stood before a small, masked and robed person, held by the old rope used to tie them up crudely.

"-Look, I brought you your bandit, boss. We gonna make the trade or what?" Kroger exclaimed to the towering figure perched against the brass railing of the raised mine entrance.

The figure's lowered it's Hyperion shotgun. "Two for one. I can't beat that." The synthesized voice replied, "Take them." They're tone ran bitter and thick as they stepped aside, his side of whatever transaction made over.

"Nah. They ain't makin' it outta here." Kroger's blunt words felt as if it were directed to himself more than the strange trader. And with each lethargic pace the blade before him raised higher in confidence. "This is personal."

The closer Kroger drew the further Fiona distanced herself by instinct. She could almost feel his desperate, heavy breaths as her soles scraped against the metallic scaffold with a thump. Her own airwaves resisted by a web of duct tape around her upper body, thin arms trying to flail.

With some guilt, Rhys stood still, a helpless choice to watch the steadily insuring violence. "Hey! No! Stop!" He begged to deaf ears all around.

Fiona was stunned into silence, about to trip on her feet if she moved any faster. Her eyes never moved off the knife reflecting their emerald muster, only hearing the voice of her old partner in crime, full of worry. Unable to tell if he was looking after his own skin or if, by chance, in that sack of bones was genuine affection. The closer Kroger came the more she hoped for the latter. A small consolation before the inevitable.

"This is the end of the line, girl..."

Kroger picked up speed, closing the gap between them. His grip tightening in anticipation.

The stooge shook his head violently at his kidnapper, "-You can't let him do this."

"So, if you got some last words..." A steady hand reached out and grabbed Fiona by her binds, dragging her back to a stop. "Best to get 'em out now. Cause you know what they say payback is."

Delaying, Fiona took her time, savoring what little air was left between herself and her death.

"I know you probably think it's your 'thing' but, that moustache... it's awful. I want you to hear that cause I feel like a lot of people in your life are worried to tell you." The now shaking woman dragged her last words out with confidence, "Which is sad..."

Rhys admired to spirit to the end, a comforting smile forced along his trembling lips. It took Fiona's attention off the knife, feeling more warmth that her pounding heart could ever provided as it gushed blood around restricting veins, soon would soon escape.

"Shit talker 'til the end. Ya know, I can respect that." 

Kroger offered no hesitation after his sentence. But in a wash he had thought back to his friend, his partner. Similar to the couple he intended to kill. But he had no doubt in a mind, flurried like a snowstorm of memories that they would do the same to him.

"This one's for Finch."

With that, his once raised knife had teared through tough leather and weak skin. Bury it's steel past the flesh of Fiona's shoulder-blade. The snap of bone barley audible behind a cry of pain from the con artist, her fists tightly balled as she was powerless to stop the attack. Either she heard her name get called out or the hail of thick, Merlot colored liquid pouring from her heavy wound was making her light headed already.

And for awhile; the longest time his body could comprehend, as a desperate bid to scurry from his mind mustered, his hearing ceased. Replaced in-part by a muffled ringing over the screams and laughs in the cacophony of blended, bile-raising, festering mass of one-sided comedic horror, rivaled by some most haunting concerto from an ECHO play he must have overheard.

All the warm blood rushing to his ears could make them glow red behind blue veins as the deafening noises persisted until they flooded like a dam, full to it's brim, could do little to drown out the repugnant reality before eyes that betrayed all of Rhys' other key senses.

The knife was pulled from Fiona, causing arteries to fly a waterfall of red across the metal. Her face had paled in comparison to the darkness filling her vision. But Kroger's blade soaring back into the wound and scraping against her lung had the force of a defibrillator. Breaths had turned to sharp groans as blood bubbled into her throat, a nail in the coffin for the grim reaper holding the knife. With one foal swoop he plunged it into her stomach, tearing the tape and causing Fiona to hunch over before quickly falling. 

Her companion was already tumbling over to her in a cacophony of metallic clangs and creaks until he was on his knees. Rhys shuffled towards her, unable to contain his sobs as blood pooling around finally reached his pants, staining them further. The warmth providing a bitter contrast to the cold surface his lower, now soggy legs pressed through.

"Y-You piece of shit!" Rhys cried out, his tears forming in his eyes vibrating against his anger.

"Maybe be lucky that ain't you there, huh? Ain't worth my time..." Kroger spat back solemnly as he walked at a disturbingly calm pace down the stairs, huffing as he strolled back into the remaining desert heat.

Rhys struggled against his binds, watching Fiona twitch and convulse as her breathing shortened in each unholy spasm. Like watching a possession take place, the spirit being sucked out of her.

"Untie me! God- Just help her!"

The masked figure looked over the captured bandit, who looked away from the situation. A shared sadness could practically be felt from nervous shifting.

"You know, even if I did... what good would it do?" 

He turned, trailing the same path Kroger took as he took his new cargo that reluctantly followed for whatever answers were left.

Leaving only two.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Quick to action, he squirmed in his restraints, a desperate need to put pressure on the caverns that now scattered her body. Fiona looked up at him, trying to talk to no avail as she shook violently -- lying on her back, now at an attempt to stop the bleeding. Rhys' tears fell onto her face, making her cough up more.

"Rh- I-" She tried, desperately to talk, only managing bare syllables at a time.

"What do I do, Fiona?.." He asked in a quiet, desperate weep. 

She moved her head onto his lap with some effort, gagging on blood as her eyes started to squint, pale eyelids were practically as white as her sclera. Rhys found it hard to even look at such a resilient woman breaking apart and leaving him. The wait was killing his heart as much it was her own. But with a level head Fiona mustered some clearer lungs and an urge to speak.

"It's oka-It's fine..." She blubbered out in a vain croak, attempting to comfort him, despite her condition.

"No it's not..."

Rhys tugged his real arm forward to place a hand against the top of her head, noting how cold it felt, even against the oncoming night. Fingers delicately finding their ways between follicles. Words unable to do justice as to how much he treasured their kidnapping. He smiled at bit, to Fiona's pleasure, making her seem just a bit happier in those final sacred moments.

"See?.." Fiona cooed against the wind, "Sa-Sasha..." 

"She's not here, Fiona..."

"Wh-What?"

It was clear to him that his partner was starting the spiral of hallucinating. Saddening him that he couldn't spend even fleeting seconds left with her conscious mind. But he would fully accept that burden. He had too, clearly -- the blood wouldn't stop spilling.

Fiona fell more and more limp onto him. "I-miss Rhys."

He bit hard on his lower lip, nodding a bit between sniffing.

"Yeah?" Rhys felt a laugh catch his throat.

She just blankly gazed up at him like a confused child, swallowing down blood that now stained her teeth in the most macabre way.

"I-I'll miss you, Rhys."

"I'll miss you too, Fiona..."

Unable to close her eyes that had now wandered into the back of her head, Rhys just sat there. Looking down when the tears that clouded his face could possibly let him. Perhaps, they were doing him a favor.

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr: http://ao3-pseudonaut.tumblr.com/


End file.
